World War II: Time of Wrath - A Preview After Action Report

[dooya]

[center:a11eb83b26](6) Poland - Turn 2 [/center:a11eb83b26]
At the beginning of the second turn, a lot of information windows pop up.

The production points



The unit upkeep



The research report



Poland had an event. Unfortunately, no further information was given (maybe I had to point the mouse cursor on the message box? Will try it later...)



The convoy screen. Default settings have been set up for this convoy at the beginning of the scenario. Since our troops made a land connection to Königsberg in the first turn, the convoy wasn't carried out - units were supplied via normal supply.



A battle occurred in the Baltic Sea.



The naval battle system cannot be influenced by the player, all you can do is pressing the next turn button. The hits are represented graphically and additionally a text message is given at the bottom of the screen.



After 4 battle turns, one Polish ship was sunk.


Finally we will have a look at the map at the beginning of the second turn. The Polish troops did not conduct any single attacks, which might have been a wise decision, given the German technical advantage. However, the AI did move the troops quite smartly, trying to build a frontline between the German forces and Warsaw. Furthermore, the flanks of the German spearhead are under pressure.



By the way, did you spot the three units without flags* near Stettin? These are 3 Slovakian units (our allies) which were strategically redeployed to Germany by the Slovakian AI! I am curious what they are going to do in the next turn – summer holidays at the Baltic beach?

(*In the real game all units have the correct flags, but I am playing a beta build.)


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[Severian]

I am curious what they going to do in the next turn – summer holidays at the Baltic beach?

Why not They can win this war without a single shot

[dooya]

[center:1457523451](7) Poland - Turn 2 (continued) [/center:1457523451]

As seen in the last chapter, the Polish AI was able to build a closed frontline at Lodz. We will try to pursue our initial plan and pass Lodz in the North.

During the morning hours, another recon mission investigates the situation between Lodz and Warsaw. Two new units are spotted.



Two air attacks soften the units in the North of Lodz



Afterwards our tanks engage the enemy and are able to take one infantry division out



The second Polish infantry division is shattered.



Our spearhead advances behind the enemy lines and attacks another infantry. Again, the unit is destroyed.



We are close to Warsaw and another infantry unit meets its creator!



In the South a Polish unit is attacked, first by an air wing and then by a tank division. Here we can see how valuable combined attacks are: the tanks attacked alone and were not able to take the Polish infantry out, but instead took rather high losses.



All units that did not attack closed up to the Polish forces. This is the whole map after the second turn.



Once again the same map, this time zoomed out and with color filter:
- red: Russia
- yellow: Poland
- darker yellow: territories that belong to Poland, but are occupied by German forces.




Before we conclude the turn, we spend some production points on reinforcing an air wing in the HG Mitte.




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[dooya]

[center:6c2d0cf4f7](8) Poland - Turn 3 [/center:6c2d0cf4f7]

At the beginning of this turn, we are informed that the USSR declares war on Poland.





Then we have a look at the main map. The situation did not change much during the Polish turn.





Again, the Polish AI did not attack and tried to create front lines to secure Lodz.





The Luftwaffe strikes at units in the Warsaw region.





Airstrike at Warsaw





Afterwards our tanks engage the enemy. The Polish soldiers are strongly outnumbered








Air strike at a Polish tank unit in the South.





And our tanks attack again. However, attacks with single units are expensive!





The map at the end of the turn. The pocket at Poznan in the North was cut in two parts, cutting the supply from Poznan for the units in the pocket. Warsaw will be encircled in the next turn.





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[dooya]

[center:869142f852](9) Poland - Turn 4 [/center:869142f852]

At the beginning of the turn, a message box informs us that the siege at Poznan was successful and the Polish defenders are disbanded.





Then an event offers the choice to do a parade with the Soviets or not. We do parade...





and the Russians do too





A look at the colored minimap shows that the Polish units haven't done much. However, our tanks in the South near Lublin are cut of from supply and the Russians are advancing into Poland.





This is the overview at the beginning of the turn:





Our fighters engage the Polish fighter wing to the South of Warsaw and aren't successful, but afterwards two tank divisions take that fighter wing out.






Another air strike near Warsaw destroys an infantry division





With all enemy units around Warsaw taken out, the German units close the pocket around the Polish capital. Warsaw takes heavy air attacks and a land attack by three tank divisions - but the brave Polish defenders stand their ground!





In the South, the tank unit forces the Polish infantry to retreat and advances towards Lublin, finds the city undefended and occupies it.





At Lodz, the Luftwaffe and German ground units wreak havoc!








The Poznan pocket is under pressure - another two Polish units destroyed.






The Polish infantry in the woods in the north of the Poznan pocket is also destroyed (not pictured here).


The battle for Danzig has begun: shore bombardement and 2 consecutive ground attacks destroyed one Polish infantry.





This is the map after the 4th turn. Warsaw will fall in the next turn and so will Poland.




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[dooya]

[center:b961240ea3](10) Poland - Turn 5 [/center:b961240ea3]

At the beginning of Turn 5, Warsaw surrenders.





Then we are informed about events that happened between Poland and the USSR. Unfortunately, we do not know what exactly happened, but it doesn't look that nice...





Two more events. The Polish government leaves the country (however, the Polish forces do not surrender). It would be interesting to know what the second message means: Where do they build new units? Maybe in Great Britain?




This is the main map at the beginning of the 5th turn. It looks like the Polish forces in the South tried to pocket my infantry divison.





Since the Polish units did not surrender after the surrender of Warsaw, I completed the turn fighting. However, many of the Polish units were out of supply for several turns or weakened and all my attacks resulted in destroying Polish units.

Danzig was taken by destroying the defenders with an air attack and the Poznan pocket was cleared by infantry. The units near to Lodz were destroyed by motorized infantry and tanks and Lodz is almost surrounded. In the south, the Polish units that attempted to pocket our infantry were destroyed.


This is the map at the end of the turn. There isn't much left and I will not keep fighting.





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[dooya]

[center:f6269a59ef](11) Epilogue [/center:f6269a59ef]

It's been a while since the last update of this AAR was published, but the reason for the delay is not my laziness alone, but also the fact that I wanted to present some of the late modifications in the final wrap up of this AAR.

But first some latest news from the front. As we have seen in the last chapters, the Polish AI simply had no chance against my spearheads and Poland lost without much resistance. In order to see how the AI performs with superior forces, I let Bolek* challenge me to a second duel, this time with switched sides.

(* The ToW AI lacks a decent name. The Operational Art of War has Elmer, AGEOD's games are powered by Athena, but there is no name for the ToW AI. For the time being, I have chosen the name Bolek from the Polish cartoon "Bolek i Lolek", which I liked a lot when I was a kid. Other suggestions for a decent name are welcome.)

The outcome of the second duel can be summarized in a single word: Ouch! Bolek whipped my forces from the map; I did not have the slightest chance to resist. The following figure is an animated gif, please click on the thumbnail to see it.



Now let's move to the recent modifications. In the following picture you can see some examples of different zoom levels of the game. In the left column are the counters, in the right column are the sprites. As you can see, the unit names are now displayed in the largest magnifications. When zooming out the number of details is decreased down to flags in the minimum zoom level.





Other recent changes I really liked were the introduction of shortcuts for the map filters and a "next unit" shortcut that allows to cycle through all units with AP left. Furthermore I really liked the new black & white border style (see the top row of the last figure).



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